COLONIAL LEGACIES AND THE EPISTEMIC STRUCTURE OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION: EVIDENCE FROM POSTCOLONIAL INSTITUTIONS FROM FORMER COLONIES

510 International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation Vol. 12, Issue 24, 2025 ISSN (print): 2392 – 6252 eISSN (online): 2393 – 0373 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18000101 COLONIAL LEGACIES AND THE EPISTEMIC STRUCTURE OF MANAGEMENT EDUCATION: EVIDENCE FROM POSTCOLONIAL INSTITUTIONS FROM FORMER COLONIES Kamaldeen Ibraheem NAGERI Department of Accounting Science, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, South Africa [email protected] Abstract This study investigates the persistence of colonial influences in management education across formerly colonised countries by assessing how curriculum content, pedagogical approaches, and institutional cultures perpetuate Eurocentric norms. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey of 550 respondents from higher education institutions in Ghana, India, and Jamaica, the study employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Quantile Regression to examine the determinants of a composite Colonial Influence Index (CII). Key findings reveal that reliance on hierarchical pedagogical practices, Western-centric curricula, and colonial-era institutional cultures are significantly and positively associated with higher perceived colonial influence in management education. Conversely, accreditation pressures are found to mitigate these effects to some extent, although they may also reinforce external dependency. Country-specific effects further demonstrate that colonial influence manifests unevenly, with Jamaica exhibiting significantly lower scores relative to Ghana and India. The study recommends context-sensitive decolonial reforms, including participatory pedagogy, curriculum indigenisation, and epistemic alignment of accreditation systems. These results carry significant implications for educational policy, institutional leadership, and global efforts toward epistemic justice and inclusivity in management education. Keywords: Colonial Influence, Management Education, Decolonisation, Curriculum Reform, Pedagogical Practices, Institutional Culture. JEL Codes: I23, O15, Z13, N37 International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 511 1. Introduction The ongoing quest to decolonise knowledge production has gathered momentum across the humanities and social sciences, with particular urgency in education systems of postcolonial societies. In management education, critiques have emerged over the epistemic dominance of Euro-American theories, pedagogies, and institutional structures that often marginalise indigenous perspectives and perpetuate colonial hierarchies (Nkomo, 2020; Alcadipani et al., 2022). Although business schools in former British colonies have grown in institutional stature, the content and delivery of management education largely remain rooted in Western paradigms, rarely reflecting the socio-cultural and economic realities of their own societies (Boussebaa & Brown, 2017; Banerjee & Prasad, 2021). This has prompted a renewed call for decolonising management education—not merely as a rhetorical gesture but as a transformative agenda. Colonial legacies manifest in management education through curricular design, pedagogical practice, and institutional governance. The adoption of Anglo-American business models, teaching cases, and assessment standards in African, South Asian, and Caribbean institutions often results in an uncritical importation of values and frameworks that are ill-suited to postcolonial realities (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2021; Keles & Yıldırım, 2023). This form of epistemic dependence sidelines local traditions of leadership, community-based entrepreneurship, and non-Western philosophies of management. Consequently, students and faculty in these regions often navigate educational spaces where their lived experiences are peripheral to the dominant academic canon, reinforcing a sense of cultural dissonance and epistemological exclusion (Ibarra-Colado et al., 2020). While there has been increasing scholarly engagement with the decolonisation of higher education more broadly, empirical insights into how students and faculty perceive and resist colonial legacies within management education remain limited (Jack et al., 2023). This study addresses this gap by critically examining the perspectives of students and faculty from Nigeria, Ghana, India, and Jamaica, which are four former British colonies with vibrant academic traditions and complex postcolonial histories. These countries represent diverse geographies but share common colonial educational legacies, including the adoption of British university structures, language of instruction, and curriculum models, particularly in business and management schools (Tikly, 2020). By employing a mixed qualitative methodology, including survey and in-depth interviews, and analysing responses through discourse and thematic analysis, this study aims to uncover how individuals within these academic communities interpret and navigate the enduring colonial International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 512 influences embedded in their management education. Drawing on postcolonial theory and critical management studies, the research seeks to illuminate how decolonial consciousness is cultivated or constrained within these institutional spaces, and what strategies students and faculty employ to challenge dominant paradigms (Dar et al., 2021; Nyathi et al., 2024). The integration of narrative data across multiple national contexts offers a unique comparative lens to understand both the shared and divergent trajectories of decolonisation efforts. This study engages with the ongoing tension between globalisation and localisation in management education. As accreditation bodies, rankings, and international partnerships continue to shape institutional strategies in the Global South, the challenge of decolonising the curriculum becomes entangled with the desire for global legitimacy (Khurana & Spender, 2022). In such a context, efforts to decolonise may be perceived as counterintuitive or even regressive, particularly when framed against prevailing notions of excellence and competitiveness derived from Eurocentric benchmarks. This study interrogates these tensions by foregrounding voices often marginalised in policy discourses and curriculum reform debates. This research contributes to a growing body of scholarship that not only critiques the hegemonic structures of management education but also envisions alternative epistemologies and pedagogies rooted in local knowledge systems, historical consciousness, and emancipatory praxis. By centring student and faculty perspectives from former British colonies, the study provides a grounded understanding of what it means to decolonise management education in practice, and the political, cultural, and institutional conditions under which such transformations may be realised. 2. Literature and Hypotheses 2.1. Empirical Review Empirical research on decolonising management education has gained momentum in the past decade, reflecting a growing dissatisfaction with the Eurocentric assumptions embedded in business school curricula, pedagogy, and institutional practices. Numerous studies have critically interrogated the enduring influence of colonial structures in shaping what is taught, who teaches, and how learning is evaluated in management education across the Global South. Alcadipani et al. (2022) present compelling empirical evidence from Latin American business schools, demonstrating how management knowledge remains anchored in Western rationalist paradigms, often alienating students and faculty whose epistemological frames are rooted in International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 513 alternative cultural and historical contexts. Similar critiques emerge in African contexts, where Nkomo (2020) and Nyathi et al. (2024) explore the institutional resistance to integrating indigenous epistemologies into business curricula, revealing a persistent valorisation of global (read: Western) standards over local relevance. Empirical studies from Nigeria and Ghana underscore how colonial legacies have entrenched institutional hierarchies in management education, where curriculum design is often imported wholesale from UK or US institutions, with little adaptation to local socio-economic realities (Ojo & Akinola, 2021; Boateng & Assenso-Okyere, 2022). These works draw on student and faculty surveys to demonstrate how the dominance of Western textbooks, case studies, and accreditation frameworks constrains meaningful innovation and contextualisation. Furthermore, faculty are often under pressure to publish in Western journals, reinforcing a cycle of dependency and epistemic subjugation. Empirical insights from India also reveal that the formal autonomy of business schools masks an underlying dependence on Euro-American templates of excellence, rankings, and MBA structures (Ravishankar & Panigrahi, 2020). Case studies from Indian Institutes of Management illustrate how such institutions struggle to balance global competitiveness with local socio-political relevance, often defaulting to Western management theories at the expense of contextually grounded knowledge. In the Caribbean context, particularly Jamaica, research has focused on the struggle to assert Afro-Caribbean epistemologies within management and leadership studies. Chambers and Miller (2021) conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Jamaican business schools, highlighting how faculty who attempt to teach using Rastafarian ethics or Afrocentric leadership models face institutional pushback and marginalisation. Their findings resonate with broader regional critiques regarding the neoliberalisation of education and its colonial underpinnings (Bryan, 2019). Caribbean students also reported a disconnect between their lived realities and the Eurocentric frameworks presented in their coursework, leading to disengagement and a sense of alienation from the learning process. Similarly, empirical work by Henry and James (2022) uses discourse analysis to show how managerial professionalism in Caribbean institutions is framed through colonial binaries of "civilised" and "traditional," subtly reinforcing the legitimacy of Western models. Several cross-national empirical studies have attempted to synthesise these insights by exploring the broader dynamics of management education reform. Boussebaa and Brown (2017), through an institutional ethnography of transnational business schools, document how the spread of English-medium instruction and Anglo-American accreditation mechanisms International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 514 perpetuates a form of epistemic imperialism, particularly in Africa and Asia. Their research shows how curriculum standardisation undermines local pedagogical traditions, reducing management education to a one-size-fits-all model. Likewise, Khurana and Spender (2022) examine how business schools in postcolonial contexts navigate the "legitimacy paradox"— the tension between global recognition and local relevance. Using interview data from administrators in India and South Africa, they show how efforts to decolonise are often curtailed by performance metrics and international rankings grounded in Western epistemologies. Recent studies have begun to shift focus towards student and faculty agency in resisting and reimagining these inherited structures. For example, Jack et al. (2023) employ a multi-site participatory research design to explore how faculty in Nigeria, Kenya, and India develop “border pedagogies” that blend critical management theory with indigenous knowledge systems. These pedagogical experiments, although limited in institutional uptake, demonstrate the possibilities of a more pluralistic and socially embedded management education. Similarly, Dar et al. (2021) document how marginalised faculty and students in UK-based and Global South business schools mobilise resistance narratives and counter-publics to critique institutional racism and epistemic violence. Their work draws attention to the emotional and intellectual labour involved in resisting dominant norms in academic spaces that remain structurally unequal. Moreover, empirical contributions in critical pedagogy have provided valuable tools for assessing the transformative potential of decolonised curricula. Liu and Baker (2021), for instance, assess the outcomes of a pilot programme in South Africa that incorporated Ubuntu philosophy into leadership modules. Preand post-course surveys revealed improvements in student engagement, critical thinking, and cultural validation. Their study suggests that integrating local worldviews into management education does not compromise rigour but enhances relevance and inclusivity. Likewise, Ibarra-Colado et al. (2020) employ narrative interviews to trace how Latin American management scholars navigate coloniality in research and teaching, emphasising the role of language politics and institutional gatekeeping in shaping academic trajectories. Taken together, these empirical studies affirm that the decolonisation of management education is not merely an ideological or theoretical pursuit, but a material and contested process involving institutional inertia, faculty agency, and student experience. The literature also reveals a recurring contradiction: while there is growing awareness and advocacy for International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 515 decolonising management education, actual structural change remains sporadic and often symbolic. In many institutions, initiatives are confined to elective courses or isolated modules rather than systemic reform. This gap between aspiration and implementation underscores the importance of empirical research that not only critiques but also informs praxis, offering grounded strategies for overcoming epistemic dependency and fostering genuine pluralism in management knowledge production. 2.2. Hypotheses Development The lingering influence of colonialism in management education is most evident in curriculum design, where Western theories, case studies, and epistemologies are prioritised at the expense of indigenous knowledge systems. Research from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean highlights how this Eurocentric orientation diminishes students’ sense of curricular relevance, producing cognitive dissonance and disengagement (Nkomo, 2020; Boateng & Assenso-Okyere, 2022). For example, business schools in Nigeria and Ghana have adopted British and American MBA curricula, resulting in a disconnect between academic content and students’ lived realities, which reduces both the practical utility and cultural resonance of management education (Ojo & Akinola, 2021; Jack et al., 2023). Comparable findings in Indian Institutes of Management reveal similar shortcomings, as students question the applicability of Western strategic frameworks to local markets and governance systems (Ravishankar & Panigrahi, 2020). Faculty perspectives often echo these concerns, particularly when institutional requirements centred on Western models limit the integration of local knowledge and practices (Alcadipani et al., 2022). Scholars argue that heavy reliance on external accreditation and benchmarking reinforces academic dependency, stifling innovation and limiting responsiveness to context (Khurana & Spender, 2022; Boussebaa & Brown, 2017). Furthermore, students exposed to curricula detached from their socio-political histories or economic realities demonstrate lower engagement and weaker critical thinking, suggesting a strong relationship between content origin and educational relevance (Henry & James, 2022; Liu & Baker, 2021). This body of evidence underpins the first hypothesis (H1), which proposes that greater dependence on Western-centric content diminishes the perceived contextual value of management curricula in postcolonial educational settings. Teaching practice represents another central dimension of the decolonisation debate, especially in societies shaped by colonial hierarchies. Conventional instructor-centred approaches, which emphasise authority, uniformity, and passive reception, have been criticised for reproducing International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 516 colonial classroom dynamics (Chambers & Miller, 2021; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2018). Such methods limit student agency, creativity, and cultural expression, particularly in contexts where oral traditions, communal learning, and dialogic engagement are more culturally aligned (Nyathi et al., 2024; Bryan, 2019). Studies from Jamaica and South Africa reveal that students perceive top-down pedagogies as exclusionary and disconnected from local traditions of knowledge sharing and meaning-making (Dar et al., 2021; Liu & Baker, 2021). Conversely, research demonstrates that participatory and culturally grounded teaching methods improve learning outcomes and student satisfaction in formerly colonised contexts (Ibarra-Colado et al., 2020). Evidence from India shows that students prefer collaborative and discussion-driven approaches that allow integration of local case studies and vernacular languages (Ravishankar & Panigrahi, 2020). Similarly, experiments with dialogic teaching models in West Africa have led to greater student engagement and a stronger sense of inclusion (Boateng & AssensoOkyere, 2022). These insights indicate that hierarchical teaching styles are increasingly regarded as outdated in contexts striving for inclusive and locally relevant education. Accordingly, the second hypothesis (H2) asserts that pedagogical practices replicating colonial hierarchies negatively influence students’ perceptions of inclusivity and contextual relevance. Institutional cultures in postcolonial countries also reflect colonial legacies, particularly through practices such as English-language instruction, Western accreditation systems, and the prioritisation of Euro-American journals for publication. These structures shape faculty identity, legitimacy, and incentives, limiting support for transformative curricular reform (Khurana & Spender, 2022; Boussebaa & Brown, 2017). Faculty members embedded in such environments often view decolonial efforts as risky, since professional advancement is tied to compliance with global standards that privilege Western knowledge (Alcadipani et al., 2022). Research in South African and Indian business schools illustrates how academics resist curricular changes that challenge dominant epistemologies, especially when such shifts could weaken their connections to international scholarly networks (Nkomo, 2020; Jack et al., 2023). Resistance is often structural rather than purely ideological, as governance systems tend to reward conformity and penalise deviation. For instance, Henry and James (2022) document how Caribbean faculty advocating Afrocentric curricula encounter marginalisation and limited institutional backing, despite strong student demand. Moreover, international rankings, funding systems, and partnerships reinforce Western curricular preferences, creating systemic disincentives to adopt alternative approaches (Chambers & Miller, 2021; Dar et al., 2021). As International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 517 a result, faculty in institutions entrenched in colonial-era academic traditions frequently adopt defensive stances toward reform, viewing decolonisation as incompatible with institutional logics of prestige and legitimacy. Hence, the third hypothesis (H3) proposes that faculty situated in institutions with deeply embedded colonial norms are less likely to support or engage in decolonising initiatives in management education. 3. Methodology This study adopts a mixed-methods approach to explore the decolonisation of management education through the dual lenses of student and faculty experiences across four former British colonies: Nigeria, Ghana, India, and Jamaica. The methodology is designed to triangulate quantitative and qualitative evidence to assess how colonial legacies influence curricula, pedagogical practices, and institutional cultures. The rationale for this design is to capture both the measurable prevalence of decolonial elements in academic programmes and the subjective perceptions and experiences of stakeholders within these institutions (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018). The primary data were collected from 12 universities (three from each country), selected based on accreditation status, disciplinary coverage in business and management education, and geographical diversity within each country. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit participants who were most likely to provide relevant insights into the decolonisation discourse. The quantitative component consists of a structured survey administered to 428 students and 122 faculty members across the selected institutions. The survey instrument included Likertscale items on curriculum content, teaching methods, institutional orientation, and perceived relevance of management education. For the qualitative strand, 48 semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively selected faculty members (n=24) and final-year postgraduate students (n=24) to probe deeper into the nuanced experiences with and resistance to colonial epistemologies. Interview data were subjected to thematic and discourse analysis using NVivo 14. The interviews, lasting 45– 60 minutes, were transcribed, coded, and analysed iteratively following Braun and Clarke’s (2021) reflexive thematic analysis framework. Secondary data from university curriculum documents, strategic plans, and course outlines were also analysed to assess the extent of Western epistemic dominance in curricular structure. This triangulation of survey, interview, and document analysis strengthens the internal validity of the study (Yin, 2018). International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 518 To model the extent to which colonial legacies influence the content and pedagogical structures of management education, we construct a composite Colonial Influence Index (CII) from survey indicators using principal component analysis (PCA). This index serves as the dependent variable in the regression models. The following linear regression model is specified: 𝐶𝐼𝐼𝑖𝑗 = 𝛼 + 𝛽1𝑃𝐸𝐷𝐴𝐺𝑖𝑗 + 𝛽2𝐶𝑈𝑅𝑅𝑖𝑗 + 𝛽3𝐼𝑁𝑆𝑇𝐶𝑈𝐿𝑇𝑖𝑗 + 𝛽4𝐴𝐶𝐶𝑅𝐸𝐷𝐷𝑈𝑀𝑖𝑗 + 𝛽5𝐶𝑂𝑈𝑁𝑇𝑅𝑌𝐷𝑈𝑀𝑖𝑗 + 𝜀𝑖𝑗 (1) Where: 𝐶𝐼𝐼𝑖𝑗 denotes the colonial influence index score for respondent 𝑖 in institution 𝑗; 𝑃𝐸𝐷𝐴𝐺𝑖𝑗 captures the pedagogy alignment with local realities (reverse-coded for Eurocentrism); 𝐶𝑈𝑅𝑅𝑖𝑗 denotes curriculum content relevance (reverse-coded for Western dominance); 𝐼𝑁𝑆𝑇𝐶𝑈𝐿𝑇𝑖𝑗 reflects institutional culture, specifically regarding language of instruction, governance, and epistemic inclusion; 𝐴𝐶𝐶𝑅𝐸𝐷𝐷𝑈𝑀𝑖𝑗 is a dummy for institutions holding Western-based accreditations (e.g., AACSB, AMBA); 𝐶𝑂𝑈𝑁𝑇𝑅𝑌𝐷𝑈𝑀𝑖𝑗 controls for country fixed effects, and 𝜀𝑖𝑗 is the error term. To assess the sensitivity of the results, a robustness model is estimated to use Quantile Regression (QR) to capture the potential heterogeneity of colonial influences across varying institutional contexts: 𝑄𝜏(𝐶𝐼𝐼𝑖𝑗) = 𝛼𝜏+ 𝛽1𝜏𝑃𝐸𝐷𝐴𝐺𝑖𝑗 + 𝛽2𝜏𝐶𝑈𝑅𝑅𝑖𝑗 + 𝛽3𝜏𝐼𝑁𝑆𝑇𝐶𝑈𝐿𝑇𝑖𝑗 + 𝛽4𝜏𝐴𝐶𝐶𝑅𝐸𝐷𝐷𝑈𝑀𝑖𝑗 + 𝛽5𝜏𝐶𝑂𝑈𝑁𝑇𝑅𝑌𝐷𝑈𝑀𝑖𝑗 + 𝜀𝜏𝑖𝑗 (2) Where 𝑄𝜏(𝐶𝐼𝐼𝑖𝑗) denotes the 𝜏-th quantile of the colonial influence index distribution. Quantile regression allows the estimation of coefficients across different levels of the index, offering a more nuanced view than OLS. Table 1 provides a detail definition of variables, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression is used as the baseline estimator due to its simplicity and interpretability. The assumptions of linearity, homoscedasticity, and normality of residuals were tested using Ramsey RESET, Breusch-Pagan, and Shapiro-Wilk tests, respectively. To address potential endogeneity concerns, particularly those arising from self-selection in survey responses, robust standard errors clustered at the institutional level are used. To ensure robustness, the study incorporates Quantile Regression (QR) as a supplementary estimation method, which is particularly suitable given the non-normal distribution of the dependent variable (Koenker, 2005). This approach captures institutional-level disparities in International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 525 viewed as perpetuating colonial influence. Thus, H1 is validated, affirming that Eurocentric management theories reduce perceived curricular relevance and reinforcing calls for epistemic diversification in management education (Nkomo, 2021; Zoogah, 2022). For H2, the hypothesis suggests that instructor-dominated and hierarchical teaching styles are regarded as exclusionary and contextually unsuitable. The results confirm that Pedagogical Practice (PEDAG) is significantly and positively correlated with CII. The positive coefficient indicates that rigid, traditional pedagogy is linked with stronger perceptions of colonial residue in classroom practices. This supports prior findings that such teaching approaches marginalise indigenous knowledge and participatory learning, thereby reproducing colonial power dynamics (Maseko & Suransky, 2020). The evidence therefore strongly supports H2. H3 addresses the persistence of colonial academic norms within institutions and their resistance to curricular change. Institutional Culture (INSTCULT) displays the strongest association with CII across both models. The large effect size demonstrates that entrenched institutional traditions substantially reinforce colonial influence in management education. These results align with Andreotti et al. (2020), who argue that institutional path dependencies and incentive structures often obstruct meaningful epistemic transformation. Consequently, H3 is strongly supported, indicating that colonial legacies embedded in institutional culture reduce faculty support for decolonial reforms. 4.3. Policy Implications The findings highlight enduring colonial continuities in management education and point to urgent policy interventions across curricula, pedagogy, and institutional governance. First, curriculum reform must prioritise indigenisation. Education ministries and accreditation agencies should promote locally grounded content that integrates indigenous knowledge, postcolonial theory, and local business realities (Abdulai, 2023; Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2022). Such reform should move beyond token examples and instead foster epistemic plurality that challenges Euro-American dominance (Andreotti et al., 2020). Second, given the strong effect of pedagogy, policies must also transform teaching practices. Universities and ministries should encourage participatory and inclusive pedagogies that empower students as knowledge co-creators, moving away from hierarchical models (Maseko & Suransky, 2020). Faculty training should incorporate principles of critical pedagogy, dialogical learning, and reflexivity to address power asymmetries rooted in colonial traditions (Henry & Jules, 2020). International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 526 Third, institutional culture must be addressed through governance reforms and revised incentive systems. National policy frameworks could require diversity audits and mandate decolonisation plans as part of accreditation, thereby promoting accountability and breaking path-dependent inertia (Nkomo, 2021). Fourth, while global accreditation frameworks provide benchmarks, their role in reinforcing colonial dependency cannot be ignored. Policymakers should negotiate with international bodies to embed contextual sensitivity and epistemic diversity in evaluation standards (Alcadipani et al., 2021). Regional accreditation systems in Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean should develop locally responsive alternatives that reflect developmental priorities. Fifth, the cross-country variations suggest that reforms must be tailored nationally. For instance, Jamaica’s experience with Caribbean-centred curricula offers lessons for other regions. Platforms such as the African Union (AU) and CARICOM could facilitate regional collaboration to share best practices and design adaptable reform strategies (Zoogah, 2022). Finally, donor agencies and international partners funding higher education must reconsider conditionalities that reinforce Western curricula and neoliberal models. Instead, they should support initiatives promoting indigenous research, intellectual sovereignty, and cross-cultural collaborations (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2022). Such reforms would move beyond symbolic commitments and foster genuine epistemic justice and emancipation. 5. Conclusion This study has examined the persistence of colonial legacies in management education across formerly colonised contexts, using empirical evidence derived from a multi-country survey dataset. The findings clearly indicate that pedagogical practices, curriculum content, and institutional cultures remain significantly shaped by colonial academic norms. These elements collectively reinforce a hierarchical, Western-centric, and often exclusionary structure that limits the epistemic relevance and contextual responsiveness of management education in the Global South. The analysis reveals that accreditation pressures may exacerbate these dynamics unless they are realigned with local developmental and epistemological priorities. Furthermore, significant cross-national variations in perceived colonial influence suggest that decolonisation is not a uniform process, but one that requires tailored approaches sensitive to local histories, policies, and institutional frameworks. Despite its contributions, the study is not without limitations. First, although the data span multiple countries, it remains cross-sectional and may not fully capture longitudinal dynamics International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 527 or the pace of curricular reform. Second, the reliance on self-reported perceptions introduces potential bias, especially regarding sensitive topics such as institutional culture and coloniality. Third, while the study uses robust econometric methods including OLS and quantile regression, it cannot fully account for unobserved heterogeneity across institutions or regions. Future research could therefore adopt mixed-methods approaches, integrating ethnographic case studies or longitudinal panel designs to enrich understanding of institutional change and resistance. In light of these findings, several practical recommendations emerge. Higher education policymakers in the Global South must prioritise reforms that indigenise curriculum content, democratise pedagogical approaches, and challenge the institutional inertia that sustains colonial academic norms (Nkomo, 2021; Abdulai, 2023). Capacity-building programmes for faculty and institutional leaders should incorporate training in inclusive, participatory pedagogies and decolonial theoretical frameworks. Furthermore, global accreditation agencies must reassess their benchmarks to ensure they support, rather than undermine, local epistemologies and cultural relevance (Alcadipani et al., 2021). Governments, too, have a critical role to play in creating policy incentives and funding mechanisms that support epistemic justice and curricular autonomy. Looking ahead, future research should investigate the impact of decolonial reforms on student learning outcomes, employability, and institutional innovation. There is also a pressing need to explore how digitalisation and international partnerships can either entrench or dismantle epistemic hierarchies in management education (Zoogah, 2022). Comparative studies between formerly colonised and non-colonised countries could further illuminate the structural specificity of colonial legacies in pedagogy and governance. In addition, future work should consider how gender, race, and class intersect with postcolonial dynamics in the classroom and faculty recruitment, building a more holistic theory of educational decolonisation. In conclusion, the study affirms that decolonising management education is not merely an academic exercise but a necessary step toward epistemic equity, social relevance, and institutional transformation in the Global South. It calls for urgent, multidimensional efforts to dismantle structural dependencies and reclaim educational sovereignty in ways that honour the diverse intellectual traditions of formerly colonised societies. International Journal of Social and Educational Innovation (IJSEIro) Volume 12/ Issue 24/ 2025 528 References Abdulai, A. G. (2023). Decolonising education in Africa: The role of indigenous epistemologies and local agency. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 53(1), 92–111. Alcadipani, R., He, S., & Köllen, T. (2021). 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